Beef Up Your Appeal to Values

The Winn-Dixie supermarket chain, which claims title to “Home of the Beef People” as a trade-protected tag line, is inviting people to enter a contest by posting on Twitter a photo of themselves, each holding a sign reading “I’m Beef People.”
     For Winn-Dixie, the contest is an occasion to promote the chain’s rollout of their house branded Angus Beef.
     For me, the Winn-Dixie contest is an occasion to talk about you appealing to shoppers’ values.
     A while back, a team of researchers from France, Australia, and the U.S. told study participants they’d be given either a beef sausage roll or a vegetarian roll to eat. But those researchers had lied to half the participants, who actually were served the other entrée from what they’d been told.
     One group of those participants granted a high rating to the food, regardless of whether they actually ate the meat or vegetable version, as long as they thought it was meat. Unlike the veggie fans, these meat elitists showed up on psychological testing as embracing values of power and strength.
     Another set of studies concluded that how you show me the beef makes a difference. Consumers who seek power products such as red meat and sport utility vehicles like head-on portrayals, rather than side views, in ads for the items.
     Carry the merchandise and then market it in ways which allow customers to affirm their values.
     Researchers at Southern Methodist University and University of Texas-Austin watched what happened when people from UT were assigned to purchase a present for someone who wanted an item carrying the logo of UT archrival Texas A&M. The reactions were compared to those of a comparable group assigned to buy a gift emblazoned with the UT Longhorns logo.
     The researchers report that when selecting the item for the Texas A&M fan, the shoppers fidgeted, chewed on their lips, and averted their eyes. They crossed their arms, as if to distance themselves from what they were doing, and at the cash/wrap, they actually stepped away from the item, as if to say to anybody watching, “Don’t think this item represents who I really am.”
     Then the researchers provided relief. They offered to each participant a choice between an expensive silver pen with no logo or a low-priced plastic pen with the Longhorn logo. Those who had bought the Texas A&M gift were more likely to select the cheap pen.

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Sell Identify Affirmation to People 
Head On In To Portray Power Products